Another week come and gone and here we are facing yet another weekend.
The good news is they keep coming. The bad news is they keep coming.
Weekends are an important time for many writers. You may be off from work, spending time with the family, friends or just relaxing.
It is easy to want to stop everything for a few days (which is fine). But, if you want your writing to excel, it is also a great time to write with minimal distractions.
We don’t all have weekends off, and your “weekend” may be during the middle of a “normal” workweek. Also, if you are reading this in 2025, it is a Thursday.
The point is, that no matter when your extra day off comes, or when you have that spare time to work with no distractions, you take it.
To get you in the mood, I introduce today’s writing prompt. A little fun prompt full of wonder and excitement. Maybe some death and despair.
Let’s take a look!
March 06
Write a 6-sentence story about two people planning a robbery. Twice.
Ah, you caught that little challenge in there, did you? “Twice,” means you will write two stories.
But, before you head off and plan the perfect caper in 6 sentences or less, let me throw another curve ball at you.
I want you to use what I call the Pokemon Style of writing.
For those that aren’t familiar with the Pokemon (TM or R or C or all of the above) video games from Nintendo, they release two versions of the same game.
Pokemon Ruby and Pokemon Sapphire, for example, are released at the same time. The games are near identical. You start out in the same town, say goodbye to your mom and start your journey capturing and training Pokemon through the same towns.
You also talk to the same people, in the same places who have the same enemy Pokemon for you to battle.
But there are subtle differences. Team Rocket is no longer around. Instead there are two bad-guy teams, Team Magma and Team Aqua. You also have slightly different Pokemon in each version.
If you play Ruby, Team Magma is trying to use the stolen meteorite to dry up the oceans and create more land mass. If you play Sapphire, Team Aqua is trying to use the meteorite to flood the land and create more ocean.
While the game play, scenarios, battles and conversations are all identical, these slight differences mean two different games.
This is where today’s prompt comes in.
Your Goal, if You Choose to Accept it
I want you to write your first story, name your characters, come up with the robbery plot and see where it goes.
Then, write it again, but make subtle enough differences that it is a different story. However, only use subtle differences.
For example, if you were to hand your story to two different people and then ask them to summarize what is happening, they should have near-identical answers.
But if you ask for details about those stories, their answers would be quite different.
Pokemon style. Get it?
When you are done, post both versions in the comment section below so we can all see your mastermind heist in action!
